Nowadays, population growth and urbanisation are two of the most important reason that are promoting walking and the use of the bicycle as easy and low-cost choices for the transportation in the cities. For example, in 2010 the bicycle was the primary means of transport for more than 35 million Europeans or 7.4% of the total European population.
While cycling and walking have beneficial effects both on the health of the people and on the preservation of the environment, the on-going increment of city traffic poses a major threat to the safety of urban cyclists and pedestrians. For example, in 2010 thousands of cyclists and pedestrians died in road accidents in Europe, in particular 1.994 cyclists and 6.004 pedestrians.
Researches show that one of the major causes of collision of cyclists and pedestrians with cars is due to poor light conditions along the streets, in particular during night time. In fact, although only 10% of the overall bicycle rides take place during night-time, around 30% of car-on-bike road accidents occur during night time. And around 50% of car-on-pedestrian road accidents occur during night time.
Despite these alarming numbers, up to 40% of cyclists ride in the dark without lights or with partially defective lights. Moreover, a large number of recent studies show that these road accidents occur more frequently in urban areas and close to intersections.
In the state of the art, devices and systems are known for the light signaling of the presence of a cyclist or a pedestrian along the street. Devices and systems are also known for the light indication of the direction that the cyclist or the pedestrian intends to follow.
However, these known devices and systems present some disadvantages. In fact, they offer to urban cyclists and pedestrians a low visibility along streets with poor light conditions, in particular from long distances. Such a disadvantage is due to the fact that the known devices and systems for the light signaling of a cyclist or a pedestrian are equipped with inadequate brightness lights.
Moreover, these known devices and systems are controlled manually, without any kind of smart or automatic activation, and their signal lights work only as a result of a command by the cyclist or the pedestrian, which often has to perform complex movements in order to control them, even releasing the handlebars of the bicycle or looking away from the street.